Vitebsk region rejoices in the bronze Olympic medal of compatriot Marina Shkermankova

August 2, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The Vitebsk region rejoices in the bronze Olympic medal of their countrywoman Marina Shkermanova, reports a BELTA correspondent. The news of the first medal in Belarus's Olympic piggy bank, brought by the 22-year-old weightlifter, arrived on the evening of August 1, and already this morning, representatives of the regional executive committee, the National Olympic Committee, and journalists are heading to the homeland of the medalist of the XXX Olympic Games, Glubokoye, to congratulate the parents of the winner, Svetlana and Ivan Shkermanov, as well as Marina's first coach, Viktor Vinnik, who also prepared her for the current Olympic Games. Congratulations await the athlete as soon as she returns home. The Belarusian Olympic team includes 17 athletes from the Vitebsk region, representing track and field, weightlifting, cycling, and rhythmic gymnastics. Among them are cycling representative, world champion Tatyana Sharakova, and track and field athlete Alina Talay. In international competitions of world and European level in 2011, athletes from the region won 152 medals of various merits, including 48 in Olympic sports. This is the second result among all regions of Belarus after Minsk. In 2011, of the 68 Belarusian sports records, 27, or 37%, belong to representatives of the Vitebsk region.